Act One

Staff
Producer Rebecca Garcia
Director Buddy Butler
Set Designer/Master Carpenter Javier Garcia
Director’s Assistants Carol Harris
Elizabeth Mandel
Costume Designer Michelle Griffin
Scenic Designer Bill Tindall
Props Managers Lori Foster
Barbara Smith
Stage Manager Bridget Harnett
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Cast
Moss Zack Goller
Hart / Jed Harris Peter Mandel
Mossy / Bernie Hart Austin Vandecoevering
George S. Kaufman / Father / Vail Rob Christopher
Aunt Kate / Frieda Fishbein Adrianne Wilkinson
Lillie Hart / Aline McMahon Ingrid Rottman
Beatrice Kaufman / Hester Worsley / Helen Megan Griffin
Mr. Borofsky / Augustus Pitou / Sam Harris / Slimowitz Joe Hartwell
Charles Gilpin / Langston Hughes / Max Siegel / Porter / David Allen Robert Butler
Mrs. Borofsky / Belle / Mrs. Henry B. Harris / Dorothy Parker Becky Owens
Wally / Gilpin’s Manager / Harpo Bud Biafore
Irene Gordon / Usher / Saloon Girl Hannah Satterlee
Eddie Chodorov / Joseph Regan  / Jerry Matthew Kropschot
Dore Schary / George Peter Owens
Lady Caroline / Edna Ferber / Mrs. Rosenbloom Donna Cowan
Sir John / Priestly Morrison / Alexander Woollcott Don Cowan
Phyllis / Muriel / Mary / Late-comer #2 / Shirley Michele Maher
Roz / Ingénue / Late-comer #1 / May Isabella Beninger
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Pianist Mark Gaetano

Growing up in an impoverished family in the Bronx in the 1920s-1930s, Moss Hart dreamed of being part of the glamorous world of the theatre. Forced to drop out of school at age thirteen, Hart’s famous memoir Act One is a classic Horatio Alger story that plots Hart’s unlikely collaboration with the legendary playwright George S. Kaufman. Tony Award-winning writer and director James Lapine has adapted Act One for the stage, creating a funny, heartbreaking, and suspenseful play that celebrates the making of a Pulitzer Prize winning playwright and his play Once in a Lifetime.

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“…brims contagiously with the ineffable, irrational and irrefutable passion for that endangered religion called the Theater…Act One critically reminds us, at a moment when it’s easy to forget, of why so many of us fell head over heels for this cockamamie faith to begin with…Hart captured the desperation, egotism, self-consciousness, illusionism and perverse certainty that made his escape possible.” —The New York Times.

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This set was a marvel. Set designer Javier Garcia contacted the designer of the set for the Broadway production, scaling do the Broadway set to fit into the Morgan Hill Playhouse. It was 2 stories high, revolving, with each room of the set in a different section of the top or bottom story. See set photos below:

Photos by Elizabeth Mandel